IGF 2020 WS #218 Climate Change Disinformation - Beyond Confusion, Action

1. Description: Anthropological climate change is threatening the survival of humanity. In the fight against climate change, disinformation is a spanner in the works. Climate change disinformation downplays the severity of climate change and humanity’s role in exacerbating the consequences. If disinformation is believed, individuals may be discouraged from acting to reduce their environmental impact, slowing down our fight against climate change. The Internet, especially social media platforms, has become a major vector of climate change disinformation, and emerging technologies have been misused to produce and further disseminate disinformation. As part of the fight against climate change, it is important to address the two key suppliers of information – the producers and the disseminators. Supply-side solutions work on the suppliers of information, to curb the production of false information, remove it from circulation or prevent its spread by yielding more true information. Avenues for Problems and Solutions There are measures which respond to disinformation from both types of information producers. Legal and political regulation strategies can discourage and punish dissemination of disinformation. For example, media platforms can also commit to self-regulatory standards, such as the European Commission’s Code of Practice on Disinformation. The Code of Practice includes measures such as removing fake accounts and limiting the visibility of sites that promote disinformation, and was signed by Facebook, Google, Twitter, and others. Social media companies can also make use of AI enabled engine and algorithms to identify and address disinformation. Facebook, for example, now reviews little-known websites whose articles get sudden surges of traffic, which is a red flag for misinformation and clickbait Finally, producing true information helps to consistently communicate facts in an approachable way in order to build up a resilient reality that citizens should understand before encountering false information. In this effort, independent and quality media are key. An example is Fact Avalanche, an online tool that alerts participants when a false tweet about climate change is released, and invites them to respond using proven scientific facts, to “bury” disinformation under truth. Relevance The potential contributions of Internet and digital technologies on the fight against climate change have been often touted, particularly its ability to provide information and avenues for collaboration, facilitating understanding and ultimately action. Our workshop aims to explore the opposing side to this phenomenon, which is emerging as a potent force; the use of the Internet to foster disinformation and discourage serious action against the climate threat. This misuse of Internet and digital technologies is an area that needs to be subject to more governance, both in terms of self-regulation and innovative responses from the private sector, and potentially policymaking from governments.